A Host Assembled
3nd of October 2006 A.D.
Click. Clippy mutes the conversation, a precipice of sound that opens into a pit of silence.
"Are you
sure about this Lydia?" The question feels different from any you have asked before, it's not just asking her to come into battle with you, dangerous as that may be, it is asking her to take your hand and jump off the proverbial cliff of isolation into the murky currents of debt and conflict centuries, millennia in the making.I could just offer two favors, you think or start to as the moment stretches.
"I'm sure, we are stronger together than we are alone, and not just when it comes to fighting," your friend replies.
She's right, you realize with a jolt, both of you are children of the new millennium, no matter how different your parents or the places you had been raised, compared to the hoary old powers of the world the two of you are far more alike than not.
You sneak a peak at your father and promptly wish you hadn't. He looks as worried as you have ever seen him. When dad has that look on his face it usually means he is up and about, talking to people, doing things. but there is nothing he can do here, nothing he can say that his conscience would allow.
"It's going to be OK dad." It's not a lie if you believe it and you are going to
make yourself believe it.
"I know it will sweetheart," he says quietly, putting a hand on your shoulder.
So strengthened by kith and kin alike when Clippy's speakers come back in your negotiate with conviction. In exchange for weapons and vehicles wrought with all your craft and skill as well as aid in one battle with Lydia at your side twenty of the Einherjaren with Gard herself at their head shall earn their mead this day in battle against the servants of Kakuri.
"So..." You start at the word, having almost forgotten that Detective Murphy was in the room, though from her stony expression she had not missed any word that had been said. "Am I just supposed to ignore than a couple of teenagers just offered to do mercenary work in exchange for twenty people with illegal weapons shooting up South Works."
"These aren't thugs with guns Lieutenant, they have been doing this for longer than anyone in this room has been alive, maybe for longer than the United States had been around. If they were in the habit of 'shooting up' places you would have heard about them doing it no?"
"As I have been informed recently a lot of higher ups in the government have a vested interest in covering up the supernatural," she counters.
"So they do, but it takes two to tango and Donar Vadderung is a
very good dancer. If I were the sort of make bets I'd call it a fair one that there is some law, some permit, some technicality that says Monoc Securities is allowed to shoot mortars, even if it is a hundred years old and buried so deep it would take a team of lawyers a week's expedition into the bowels of bureaucracy to find it."
A sound somewhere between annoyed huff and reluctant laughter passes her lips. "We will be clearing the area around South Works first."
"That is why I thought of asking Gard to help..." It is in the middle of this explanation of warding that Daniel comes down, probably woken up by Hank earlier to what must be an odd tableau: you and dad in armor black and shining standing side by side on the other side of the table to Brother Divsimar, his robes as free of creases as his face is of worry, Lieutenant Murphy in CPD tagged body armor, Harry pacing nervously, his long strides carrying him across the room and back all too quickly, but it is unsurprisingly to Lydia that his eyes go first.
"What are you...?"
"Going to battle, wish me luck," she offers with a lightness behind which you do not think anyone else cam hear the strain.
"I think a kiss is traditional," you tease, wishing your own smile could be genuine at their sudden flush and the stammering that follows, wishing that you could go out with a light heart and not one heavy with the weight of fifteen captives whom you had promised to protect and failed. Soon enough all of you pie back into the car, police cars in front and behind you as mom and Daniel watch you drive away into the night.
As you drive down the I90 four black vans merge with your improvised convoy, No markings betray their origins, though you would odds are very good they would weigh a lot more than they aught if anyone would check and the tinted windows are bullet-proof.
"Sunrise in forty minutes," Clippy announces as the Jaslin Hotel slides into view again, its brown brick facade and trendy white on black sign with a red ideogram next to it just camouflage for what and who you know linger within.
"Is Lady Eiko still in?" you ask pulling yourself out of the cup of bleach, slightly more energetic than you had been before.
Gain 1 Essence -> Now at 7/12
"She has not passed by any of the hotel's security cameras," comes the prompt reply.
"You know that's creepy, right?" Harry asks offhandedly.
"Useful though," you shrug. "So anyone want to come with to see if I can tempt her over to our side, or at least the side of not helping Kakuri's Will?"
Dad offers to help of course, willing to offer a chance at redemption to anyone who might take it as is Brother Divsimar, though he is obviously less sanguine about it actually working, focused more on how to deal with the fallout should a fight break out. Harry is even more skeptical of the whole thing, having read up enough about akuma to classify them firmly under 'more trouble than they are worth to talk to'... but he knows enough about the company he's in to only give a mild grumble.
"What kind of ally would I be if I let you go talk someone this dangerous while I wait in the car, like a little kid at the supermarket," Lydia pipes up, humor wrapped around a deadly earnest core.
"We I can shoot her if she does anything funny, but I don't think you are going to be lacking for guns," Murphy says motioning out the window where a dozen or so tough looking men, in heavy leather some bearded, most of them scarred. Somewhat to your initial surprise not all of them have the typical look of a 'viking warrior'. Two of them are black, one looks vaguely Middle Eastern and one has a cast of features that brings to mind Central Asia. Whether they had gone on long and perilous journeys in times of yore or hand been offered a seat in Odin's hall in more recent days you could not say and it matters little in the end. All of them look tough enough to chew iron and spit nails as they subtly set up a perimeter... well as subtly as what looks like a roving Hell's Angels convention can.
Gard offers to come with you as well, though she cautions that you cannot make any use of her presence to imply that Monoc or its CEO are politically backing you besides providing services... up to and including shooting the akuma in the face if it should come to it.
Who do you take with you to meet with Lady Eiko?
[] Your father, Michael Carpenter, Knight of the Cross
[] Brother Divsimar, skilled Shih Master
[] Harry Dresden, Warden of Chicago
[] Lydia, Daughter of Arwan, Once King of the Underworld
[] Karin Murphy, head of Special Investigations
[] Sigrun Gard, Chooser of the Slain
[] Write in
OOC: You can of course take more than one person, the vote is structured like this to offer a short-hand for what each of them imply about your negotiating position if you choose them. 
